Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia

by Thomas Lippman

Overview

The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has always been a marriage of convenience, not affection. In a bargain cemented by President Roosevelt and Saudi Arabia's founding king in 1945, Americans gained access to Saudi oil, and the Saudis sent the dollars back with purchases of American planes, American weapons, American construction projects and American know-how that brought them modernization, education and security. The marriage has suited both sides. But how long can it last? In Inside the Mirage , veteran Middle East journalist Thomas W. Lippman shows that behind the official proclamations of friendship and alliance lies a complex relationship that has often been strained by the mutual aversion of two very different societies. Today the U.S.-Saudi partnership faces its greatest challenge as younger Saudis less enamored of America rise to prominence and Americans, scorched by Saudi-based terrorism, question the value of their ties to the desert kingdom. With so much at stake for the entire, ever-volatile Middle East, this compelling and absolutely necessary account brings the light of new research onto the relationship between these two countries and the future of their partnership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813343136
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/11/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Thomas Lippman, a respected former correspondent and bureau chief at the Washington Post, traveled with Albright for two and a half years to write this political biography. Lippman is the author of Understanding Islam, which is now in its second edition.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	VII
	A Note on Arabic Words and Names	IX
	Prologue	1
1	The Pioneers	7
2	Into the Wilderness	39
3	Little America	55
4	Arabs and Attitudes	71
5	Funny Money	97
6	The Little Screen	111
7	Come Fly With Me	123
8	A Ford in Their Past	137
9	The American Way	155
10	Down on the Farm	179
11	Christians and Jews	201
12	Go Directly to Jail	227
13	The Cultural Divide	247
14	From Swords to Missiles	273
15	Desert Storms	299
16	After September 11	325
	Notes	349
	Bibliography	371
	Index	375

Editorial Reviews

Lippman skillfully excavates the subsequent Saudi-American modus vivendi in the mid-20th century, a period that now seems as remote and innocent as a flickering home movie from Eisenhower's America. Lippman has done pioneering research on the early days of Aramco, the American company that more or less single-handedly created the oil business in Arabia. Some of the pictures he has found to illustrate that era are as eloquent as the interviews he conducted with the Americans who lived in the Saudi kingdom at the time: black-and-white photos of happy American faces at an Aramco cocktail party in 1950 (no Arabs in view), Aramco wives from the same year kicking up their heels in can-can dresses at some amateur theatrical event and Aramco executives dressed in sober suits sitting down in a tent to share a "goat grab" with their Saudi hosts. — Peter Bergen

The Washington Post

With nearly two decades of experience writing about Saudi Arabia for the Washington Post as a Middle East bureau chief and national security correspondent, Lippman is as effective on today's street-level perspective as he is on a nearly century-long history of political and economic alliances between Saudis and Americans. While "Riyadh is just like Phoenix" on the surface, he proposes, Saudi Arabians have a radically different mindset that often includes resentment over what they perceive as American interference with their way of life. His insightful journalism points to a frayed relationship that may get worse before it gets better. B&w photos, 1 map not seen by PW. 40,000 first printing. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Lippman tracks the evolution of U.S.-Saudi relations by stringing together smaller stories: the pioneering American oilmen in the 1930s, the garrison-like life in what became Aramco, the U.S. role in developing Saudi Arabia Airlines, the always tense relations between non-Muslim Americans and the Saudi state and society, the Americans who helped develop Saudi national parks. In the final few chapters, he discusses the strategic ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia, especially since the stationing of U.S. troops there in the Persian Gulf War. Lippman's approach works: his account is readable and informative, combining the seemingly disjointed stories into a balanced account of this long-term relationship between two such different states and societies.

Foreign Affairs

In this timely, engaging, and highly readable book, Lippman, adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC, and once head of the Washington Post's Middle East bureau, demystifies the puzzle of U.S.-Saudi relations. The long history of America's relationship with Saudi Arabia is multifaceted and complex. Various U.S. administrations have been intimately involved with the Saudi Arabian government for over half a century. Yet few Americans have an understanding of the nature and development of U.S.-Saudi ties. Relying on his many years of covering the Middle East and traveling in the region, Lippman provides a panorama of the issues that have shaped the contours of American-Saudi relations. The book places this relationship in the context of Saudi culture and social norms and explains in lively fashion the interrelationship between domestic and foreign policy in Washington's relations with Riyadh. In a concluding chapter, the author provides an interesting picture of the strained relations between the two traditional allies in the aftermath of the September 11 tragedies. Highly recommended for all public libraries.-Nader Entessar, Spring Hill Coll., Mobile, AL Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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